Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I really should read my own blog.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / On The Road – PaulB – The Cascade Loop, Part 7

On The Road – PaulB – The Cascade Loop, Part 7

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PaulB

Welcome to stage 7 of “Washington’s Ultimate Road Trip,” the Cascade Loop. Today, we’ll be driving along the North Cascades Highway, a highway that closes every winter because of the snow. The highway reopened just a few weeks before I began this trip.

This was the part of the trip where I really felt that I was in the mountains, not just in the foothills, with views that were just stunning. All of these pictures were taken from overlook spots along the highway.

Note: You can see full-size versions of these photos here.

On The Road - PaulB - The Cascade Loop, Part 7 8
North Cascades HighwayMay 15, 2024

The first three pictures speak for themselves, I think. Alas, I don’t know any of the mountain names, so can’t pinpoint exactly where I was.

On The Road - PaulB - The Cascade Loop, Part 7 9
North Cascades HighwayMay 15, 2024
On The Road - PaulB - The Cascade Loop, Part 7 6
North Cascades HighwayMay 15, 2024
On The Road - PaulB - The Cascade Loop, Part 7 7
North Cascades HighwayMay 15, 2024

Looking back from higher up in the mountains. Note the road running from the lower left to the center. That’s the road I had just traversed.

On The Road - PaulB - The Cascade Loop, Part 7 4
North Cascades HighwayMay 15, 2024

These next pictures are of Diablo Lake, a reservoir created by Diablo Dam, part of the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project that helps provide power to the Seattle area. You can see the dam off in the distance in the third picture.

On The Road - PaulB - The Cascade Loop, Part 7 5
North Cascades HighwayMay 15, 2024
On The Road - PaulB - The Cascade Loop, Part 7 2
North Cascades HighwayMay 15, 2024
On The Road - PaulB - The Cascade Loop, Part 7 3
North Cascades HighwayMay 15, 2024

The color in the earlier pictures is not entirely accurate. This picture really shows the unique turquoise color of the lake.

On The Road - PaulB - The Cascade Loop, Part 7
North Cascades HighwayMay 15, 2024

This is the first time I’ve seen a nurse log out in the middle of a lake. That tree in the center was roughly 3 to 4 feet tall.

On The Road - PaulB - The Cascade Loop, Part 7 1
North Cascades HighwayMay 15, 2024

A snow melt runoff waterfall by the side of the road. This is the base of the waterfall, with the full cascade perhaps as high as 700 feet. I do have a picture of the full fall, but with nobody standing next to it, you can’t really grasp the height, so I settled for just the bottom part.

Reader Interactions

26Comments

  5. 5.

    Another Scott

    Beautiful shots of amazing countryside.

    Google Lens tells me that the first one is the “Wine Spires” including “Chianti Spire”.   It’s impressive how it can ID things pretty well (I mostly use it for unknown plants and birds).

    Thanks!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  9. 9.

    Dagaetch

    Wonderful shots! And another destination added to the looonnggg list of places I want to go someday…

  11. 11.

    mvr

    Thank you for these beautiful pictures.

    I remember a hitch hiking/backpacking trip that must have been around there, 40 years ago.  We left from Portland hand hitched through or toward Wenatchee, IIRC. (Detail remembered because the recent parolees in the Dodge Dart with no windshield that left us out in a beautiful desert under a full moon casting shadows were on their way to Wenatchee until they got their directions confused.) And I remember believing it was off Highway 20, though in my probably mistaken memory that was a federal highway.

  13. 13.

    Ten Bears

    I did a bunch of helicopter logging in there back in the day. Don’t see any scars

    These photo-journals usually don’t interest me much. This was a good one

    Is Rosie’s of Twisp still Rosie’s?

  14. 14.

    pieceofpeace

    Your photos of this serene area are very welcome first thing in the morning!  Being from the PNW, these are making me homesick for solitude and beauty like you captured.  Thank you.

  15. 15.

    trollhattan

    Sigh.

    Miss the Cascades and the Olympics. Miss summer days not continuously triple-digit temp enhanced. The PNW is uniquely lovely and these show that splendidly.

    (Do not miss winter days that begin and end with a commute in the dark.)

  16. 16.

    munira

    Beautiful. Love the Cascades. Some of your photos look like a lot of the pictures I’ve taken from the train. Someone just told me that the highway is closed right now because of the fires. Bummer.

  17. 17.

    frosty

    Stunning landscapes!!

    We’re in the middle of our cross-country road trip to see Washington’s National Parks and we’ll be on this highway in about a week*. I’ve been following your OTR posts and we’ve been on two other sections of the Cascades Loop without knowing it, with Whidbey Island the longest one so far. What a great trip you were on!

    * Pulling a trailer. Your pictures and the map show a pretty easy road, considering it’s through the mountains.

  18. 18.

    hw3

    Up behind the dam at the head of Diablo Lake is Ross Lake, stretching north across the 49th and the border. Along Ross lake is Desolation Peak where Jack Kerouac spent a couple of months manning the fire tower and working on what would be The Dharma Bums and Desolation Angels.
    That’s what is amazing about the Cascades: you can’t drive to where most of it exists.

    Yes, for I’d thought… ‘When I get to the top of Desolation Peak and everybody leaves on mules and I’m alone I will come face to face with God or Tathagata and find out once and for all what is the meaning of all this existence and suffering and going to and fro in vain’ but instead I’d come face to face with myself.

    Jack Kerouac “Desolation Angles”

  19. 19.

    Jill

    I’m Munira’s source that the Cascades road is closed because of wild fires east of it. I read that in the Seattle Times I believe. It also said there’s no current date for when it will reopen; so check that out before you go, Frosty. It is for sure God’s country and absolutely stunning.

  20. 20.

    PaulB

    Thank you for the lovely compliments. I very much appreciate it. Yes, the entire loop is easily drivable, even if you’re pulling a trailer. And yes, unfortunately, a portion of Highway 20 is closed with no ETA for its reopening.

    Effective July 17, SR 20 North Cascades Highway is fully closed between Granite Creek (MP 148) and east of the Rainy Pass Trail Head (MP 158) due to wildfire activity. There is no ETA for reopening. This information will be updated when the status of the road changes.

  21. 21.

    PaulB

    This was the portion of the trip that I was most nervous about when I made lodging reservations, as Highway 20 was closed for the winter, with no specific date set for its opening. Were it still closed when I got there, I’d have had to find a way around, most likely by reversing direction on the loop and coming in from the other side. Fortunately, it opened about a month before the journey started, and I had no problem with snow.

    I got lucky in one other way, in that the weather was still unseasonably warm and sunny, which made taking these pictures ridiculously easy. Had I been two days later on this trip, I’d have encountered rain and low-hanging clouds, which would have blocked half of these views.

  22. 22.

    frosty

    @Jill: Thanks! I checked the NPS website this morning and there was nothing in the alerts about the road under Fire Closures. A lot of trails are closed.

    I’ll call and confirm though.

    ETA the closure is in the alerts now. I’ll keep checking.

  23. 23.

    frosty

    @PaulB: Our campground in Newhalem is open as well as the road to Diablo Lake so that part of the trip still works. It’s a long haul eastbound though – all the away back to Everett. :-(

    Looks like your pictures were from the east side? Is that the more scenic part, other than wildfire smoke? I could reroute maybe.

  24. 24.

    PaulB

    @frosty: Looks like your pictures were from the east side? Is that the more scenic part, other than wildfire smoke? I could reroute maybe.

    The first four were definitely on the east side. The rest were all in the Diablo Lake region, so you will still have some good sights to see. Good luck!

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